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Opinion: How to get kids to hate taking English classes in school

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Imagine a world without English majors. In the last decade, the study of English and history in college has fallen by a third. At Columbia University, the share of English majors fell from 10% to 5% between 2002 and 2020. According to a recent story in The New Yorker, “The End of the English Major,” this decline is largely a result of economic factors — which departments get funded, what students earn after graduation, etc. Fields once wide open to English majors — teaching, academia, publishing, the arts, nonprofits, the media — have collapsed or become less desirable. Facing astronomical debt and an uncertain job market, students may find majors like communication arts and digital storytelling more pragmatic.That’s definitely a big part of the story. Yet many would-be humanities majors have turned toward, not more pragmatic degrees, but more esoteric, interdisciplinary majors, filled with courses that encourage use of words like “hegemony,” “intersectional” and “paradigm.” These e...

Ranch dressing soap is on the menu at Wingstop: Here’s how to get it March 10, National Ranch Day

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

If you want to feel as fresh as a celery stick, Wingstop has an offer for you.The chicken wing chain has partnered with Buff City Soap on bars of ranch dressing-scented soap and will be given away to an extremely limited number of them on Friday, March 10 in honor of National Ranch Day.According to a news release, the soap has the look and smell of Wingstop dressing with false carrot and celery sticks poking out of it and notes of buttermilk, parsley and dill.The first 100 people to visit BatheInRanch.com at 10 a.m. Central time (8 a.m. Pacific) on Friday, March 10 will be shipped a bar of soap, the news release said.Wingstop will also be giving away servings of real ranch dressing to online or app customers who use the promo code “FREERANCH” at checkout on Friday, the news release said.Want more? Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and Hidden Valley have partnered on an Original Ranch Dressing ice cream that will be available at 3,500 Walmart stores from March 20 through May 28, according to a ...

Yeti recalls 1.9 million coolers, cases over magnet hazard

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

U.S. product regulators said Thursday that Yeti has recalled 1.9 million coolers and gear cases because magnets can come detached from them, posing a risk of serious injury or death.The Consumer Product Safety Commission said consumers should immediately stop using the four recalled products and contact Yeti for refund information.The closures on the recalled products can fail, resulting in detached magnets, the CPSC said. If swallowed, two or more high-powered magnets can attract to each other or to another metal object and get stuck in the digestive system. The CPSC said if that happens, it can cause perforations, twisting and blockage of the intestines, potentially resulting in infection, blood poisoning and death.The products being recalled are the Sidekick dry gear case, M20 soft backpack cooler and M30 soft cooler, version 1.0 and 2.0.The coolers and gear bags were sold at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ace Hardware, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Yeti and other stores, including Amazon...

Accused of killing missing wife, Bay Area man enters not-guilty plea at arraignment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

A 61-year-old Fairfield man accused of the mid-February death of his wife sat silently, looking haggard and lacking sleep, as his lawyer entered a not-guilty plea to a murder charge Thursday in Solano County Superior Court.Gregory Grant Hobson’s attorney, Solano County Chief Deputy Public Defender Oscar J. Bobrow, entered the plea during the early afternoon session in Department 11, where Hobson faced jail arraignment, in the Justice Center in Fairfield.Hobson registered no visible emotional response to Bobrow’s statement to Judge William J. Pendergast during the brief proceeding in the Justice Center in Fairfield.RELATED: Missing since Valentine’s Day, Bay Area mother confirmed deadThe judge then assigned the case to Department 23, Judge John B. Ellis’ courtroom, and ordered Hobson to return there at 8:30 a.m. April 13 for a readiness conference and a preliminary hearing setting.Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Flynn will lead the prosecution. His criminal complaint, filed Feb....

Opinion: How Trump could lose the primaries but win the nomination

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

Here’s another headache for Republicans who don’t want to see Donald Trump as their presidential nominee in 2024: There’s a mechanism that could allow him to get the party’s nomination even if he’s defeated in its primaries and caucuses.It has to do with the decentralized way that Republicans decide their nomination — which is different from the strict procedures that Democrats have mandated for state parties since the 1970s.Republicans do have some national rules affecting the calendar and delegate selection, but in many ways the states are free to do what they want.The issue is the difference between delegate allocation and delegate selection. Allocation is about which candidate the delegates to the convention are bound to, or supposed to vote for. Selection is about which people are chosen as delegates.On the Democratic side, the two are tightly connected. Candidates have “slates” of delegates; effect, they choose their own delegates. For Republicans, allocation and selection are...

Alfred Hitchcock to be celebrated in Santa Cruz County festival

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

SCOTTS VALLEY — Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most celebrated and influential filmmakers of all time. Directing 52 feature films between 1925 and 1976, many considered among the best motion pictures of all time, Hitchcock’s legacy as the “Master of Suspense” is well-documented.What might not be known to everybody is that, for much of Hitchcock’s career, he lived on a 200-acre estate in Scotts Valley, positioning him to film many of his movies in Northern California. His filmography, as well as his time in Scotts Valley, will be celebrated when the city hosts its first Alfred Hitchcock Festival this weekend, featuring screenings of “Shadow of a Doubt” and “Vertigo,” an interview with his granddaughter, and wine made on Hitchcock’s former property.Victor Alejandro, chairman of the festival planning committee and treasurer for the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he moved to Scotts Valley in 2014 and later learned that Hitchcock lived in the area.“I was surprised we didn’t talk...

Coroner: 1 death in San Bernardino Mountains linked to recent storms; 8 others being investigated

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

The San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office is investigating the deaths of eight San Bernardino Mountains residents that have occurred since a series of snowstorms belted the area, including that of a 93-year-old woman who a relative said appeared to be healthy and a man who had been unable to receive dialysis treatments.The coroner has responded to 13 deaths in the mountains from Feb. 26 to March 8, the office said Thursday, March 9. By comparison, there were 11 coroner cases in the mountains during an 11-day period from Jan. 1 to Jan. 11, according to the coroner’s website. Nine of those were from natural causes and two were accidental.In addition to the eight deaths under investigation, one person died from injuries suffered when hit by a car and four others were either in hospice care or already in a hospital.“When reviewing these deaths, the preliminary assessment is only one of these had a direct correlation to the weather. The decedent died at the hospital as the result of a t...

Suspect arrested for helping steal $550,000 in 5 California armored-car heists

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

A Los Angeles man was arrested this week for his suspected role in helping to steal $550,000-plus during five armored-car robberies last year in Hawthorne, Inglewood and South Los Angeles.James Russell Davis, 34, was arrested on Wednesday, March 8, in Rancho Cucamonga by the FBI after he was charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, according to Donald Alway, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.A second suspect, Deneyvous Hobson, 36, of Los Angeles, was arrested on Feb. 21 and being held in federal custody in Los Angeles.Authorities believe there are at least five other fugitives connected to the robberies, though they have not been identified.The group is accused of targeting drive-thru ATMs, check-cashing locations and other businesses. The suspects followed a pattern of overtaking the armored-car drivers, who were zip-tied and held at gunpoint while at least one suspect entered the vehicle and took the ...

Bay Area storm updates: Flooding impacts morning commute

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

(KRON) -- A multi-vehicle injury accident has been reported in Walnut Creek as the first in a series of atmospheric rivers is set to roll into the Bay Area Thursday. The storm is expected to bring widespread rain, wind and wet weather conditions with a flood watch set to go into effect for the entire Bay Area. Rainfall is expected to arrive by Thursday afternoon and intensify throughout the weekend.Officials advise residents to prepare for the next storm by securing any property and stocking up on sandbags to prevent flooding. Bay Area storm: Here’s what to do if your house floods Stick with KRON4 for the latest updates on the storm.Bay Area storm updates:Friday, March 104:20 a.m. -- PG&E reports more than 7K without powerAccording to PG&E's latest outage report, about 7,272 customers are without power Friday morning.4:00 AMAffected Customers San Francisco36Peninsula3,084North Bay 1,576East Bay 1,945South Bay 631Bay Area Total7,2724 a.m. -- Flooding imp...

Kansas coach Bill Self sidelined after medical procedure

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:25:50 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Just over 20 years ago while on a recruiting trip to Pittsburgh, Bob Huggins collapsed at the airport while catching a flight home, awaking to find himself surrounded by strangers who were lifting him into an ambulance.Then the coach at Cincinnati, Huggins drifted in and out of consciousness on the ride to the hospital, where doctors told the future Hall of Fame coach that he’d suffered a massive heart attack. Huggins wound up having a device implanted to help normalize his heartbeat, and he was told to make some lifestyle changes — exercise more, watch what he was eating, lose some weight and try to lower his stress level.That last one? That might have been the toughest one.Long days and longer nights, coupled with the increasingly high stakes of major college basketball, naturally put the health of coaches in peril. Huggins is just one of many who have dealt with issues over the years.So when Huggins, now the coach at West Virginia, learned Thursday t...